The broadcasting watchdog has received complaints after a Channel 4 show featured a lewd joke about the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year 2012, presented by comedian Jimmy Carr, went out just after the 9pm watershed on Sunday and lasted for two hours.

The show, which had been pre-recorded, also included sexual gags about US President Barack Obama, sprinter Usain Bolt and singer Susan Boyle.

A spokesman for the watchdog Ofcom confirmed complaints had been made about the show, but was unable to say how many.

Most of the controversial material came from Gavin & Stacey star James Corden, 34, and award-winning comic Jack Whitehall, assisted by Jonathan Ross.

Whitehall, 24, made a joke about the bladder infection suffered by the Duke of Edinburgh last summer and also said Olympic gold medallist Bolt could "rake it in" by going to stud like the retired racehorse Frankel.

He and Corden reportedly each drank a bottle of wine during the recording of the show, and Whitehall later told his Twitter followers he had been drunk.

Fresh Meat star Whitehall was named King Of Comedy in a viewer vote for the UK Comedy Awards in December.

Ross was suspended from the BBC in 2008 after he and Russell Brand left lewd messages on the answerphone of veteran Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs.

He later quit the BBC and said one reason was to avoid the "sheer volume of negative press" he was attracting to the corporation.

Carr himself was the butt of other comedians' jokes in the summer when a row blew up over his tax affairs.

Channel 4 was later reported as saying the programme was a well-known satirical review of the year that had been broadcast after the watershed with appropriate warnings.